


the heart is the strongest muscle

by tekkersboi67



Category: Super J-Cast RPF, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:09:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23153806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tekkersboi67/pseuds/tekkersboi67
Summary: Joel and Damon have an experience together that they won’t soon forget.
Relationships: Joel Abraham/Damon McDonald
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	the heart is the strongest muscle

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Super J-Cast: 98 - Another Show About No Shows

For reasons that will soon become clear, Joel and Damon found themselves standing uncomfortably close in a dark room. 

A light clicked on. There was a woman seated at a desk, holding a clipboard. Books and papers covered the surface of the table.

“I’m sorry that I had to bring you in this way,” she said, pointing at the Joel/Damon tag and the “explicit” rating at the top of the fic. “But we need to talk.”

Damon and Joel exchanged a glance.

“You see, talking about fanfic in your podcast like that is actually a major breach of ethics,” the woman said.

She caught them both with a hard stare.

“I see you wanting to click out of this fic. You can leave, but then you’ll never know what the fanfic author had to say about the Super J-Cast, and that will keep you up at night, won’t it?”

The woman stood up. She pressed a button, and an overhead projector turned on, illuminating the screen behind her.

“The academic field that examines fandom is called fan studies. The articles and books cited in this fic are real, actual, peer-reviewed academic sources.”

She hit a button, and the slide changed. It said: “FANFIC ISN’T THE SAME AS PUBLISHED LITERATURE.”

“If you look at publications in the fan studies field, you’ll notice that scholars tend to approach fandom in the manner of a sociologist and not that of a literary critic.” [1]

She paused, glancing at Damon and Joel.

“This means that scholars use pseudonyms instead of crediting authors, and don’t provide identifying information without a fan’s full consent,” she continued. “Why is that? Well...” [2]

She clicked to the next slide. This one said: “FANDOM HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN STIGMATIZED.”

“The fan studies field was born in 1992, when Henry Jenkins published _Textual Poachers._ The book was written in response to how the media and other academics were talking about fans in a negative and inaccurate way. Jenkins was the first person to postulate that scholars and outsiders shouldn’t—and in fact _couldn’t—_ talk about fan subcultures without being part of the community in question, or at least in open dialogue with the community.” [3]

The next slide said: “EXPOSING FANFIC AUTHORS HAS VERY REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR THEIR LIVES.”

“Some fic authors are open and public about their life in fandom, but others are not. It’s so important to respect their anonymity that Fanlore, a wiki about fandom and fan history, has policies in place to protect fans’ identities.” [4]

The woman paused for a moment.

“In the past, people have gotten sued for writing fanfic. Things are better now, but that’s always still a risk. Individuals in the past have also faced public ridicule, or have potentially lost their jobs over getting outed as a fic author.” [5]

She flipped past a list of lawsuits over fanfics.

“But even if it isn’t that serious, it’s upsetting for authors to have their fics mocked or laughed at by an audience they weren’t intended for.”

The next slide was titled: “EXPOSING FANFIC TO ITS SUBJECTS CAN HARM THEM.”

“Legal issues go both ways. Generally, content creators shouldn’t read fic of their works, because if they accidentally incorporate an idea from fanfic, the fic writer could potentially take legal action against _them._ ” [6]

She clicked through a couple slides about fanfiction about real people.

“Wrestling fic is generally about the characters that wrestlers are portraying, not the real people behind those characters, but sometimes, that’s a difficult distinction to make. Some wrestlers would probably prefer not to know that fanfic exists of them.”

The slide after that said: “PROFITING OFF OF FANFIC IS DANGEROUS.”

“Fanfic currently exists in a bit of a legal grey area. For the most part, copyright holders won’t go after fic authors unless fans attempt to profit off of someone else’s creative property. In fandom, there’s a general stigma against profiting off of fic for this reason.” [7]

She smirked, meeting Damon’s eye, then Joel’s.

“That might be something worth considering, if you’re exploiting fanfiction for your for-profit podcast.”

She clicked to the next slide, which said: “FAILING TO RESPECT FANDOM NORMS WILL RESULT IN THE DELETION OF FICS.”

“One of the main reasons why scholars try to stay on good terms with fan subcultures is because if they don’t, fans might revoke access to fanfiction and other works that they’re producing. This is a subculture that has historically existed underground. A lot of it is happening in private spaces that the general public does not have access to.” [8]

She regarded both Damon and Joel carefully.

“If you enjoy being able to read fanfiction, then don’t violate the norms of the community, or people might feel threatened by your presence, and take their fics down off of publicly accessible websites.”

The next slide said: “IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT FANFIC, AT THE VERY LEAST GET CONSENT FROM THE COMMUNITY.”

“We’re almost done! I’m sure you’re pleased to hear that. You’ve both been very patient.”

She smiled at Damon and Joel.

“Some fans might be okay with having their fics publicized on your podcast, but others might not. At bare minimum, ask the author before featuring their work. Also, I implore you to consider the power that your podcast has in NJPW fandom, and the fact that you are exposing individual fans and fan practices to an audience that includes people in the industry. This has the potential to harm folks on all sides of the equation.”

The woman hit the button that turned off the projector. She looked back at Damon and Joel. 

“And that’s the last from me. I’ll let you get on with whatever you were about to do before I showed up. That’s what you came here for, right?”

She winked at them, then headed for the door.

“I’m going to turn out the lights now. What happens next? Well, that’s up to the two of you. If you want to know what fanfiction is actually about— _all_ fanfiction—that’s it. Fanfiction is having the power to decide what happens.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1 Busse, Kristina. “The Ethics of Studying Online Fandom.” In _The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom_ (New York: Routledge, 2017). <http://kristinabusse.com/pdf/Busse,%20Kristina%20-%20The%20Ethics%20of%20Studying%20Online%20Fandom%20(in%20Routledge%20Companion%20Media%20Fandom%202018).pdf>. [return to text]
> 
> 2 Kelley, Brittany. 2016. “Toward a Goodwill Ethics of Online Research Methods”. _Transformative Works and Cultures_ 22 (September). <https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2016.0891>.  [ return to text ]
> 
> 3 Jenkins, Henry, _Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture_ (London: Routledge, 2013).  [ return to text ]
> 
> 4 “Fanlore:Identity Protection.” Fanlore. Accessed March 14, 2020. <https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanlore:Identity_Protection>.  [ return to text ]
> 
> 5 “Open Letters to Star Wars Zine Publishers (1981).” Fanlore. Accessed March 14, 2020. <https://fanlore.org/wiki/Open_Letters_to_Star_Wars_Zine_Publishers_(1981)>.  [ return to text ]
> 
> 6 “Marion Zimmer Bradley Fanfiction Controversy.” Fanlore. Accessed March 14, 2020. <https://fanlore.org/wiki/Marion_Zimmer_Bradley_Fanfiction_Controversy>.  [ return to text ]
> 
> 7 Scott, Suzanne. “Repackaging Fan Culture: The Regifting Economy of Ancillary Content Models.” _Transformative Works and Cultures_ 3 (September 2009). <https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2009.0150>.  [ return to text ]
> 
> 8 Stein, Louisa and Kristina Busse. “SCMS 2011 Workshop: Acafandom and the Future of Fan Studies”. Transform (blog), March 16, 2011, <https://louisaellenstein.com/2011/03/16/scms-2011-workshop-acafandom-and-the-future-of-fan-studies/>.  [ return to text ]


End file.
